Proceedings of the North American Berry Conference, December 2016

These Proceedings include PowerPoint presentations, posters, and abstracts/articles from the North American Berry Conference, held December 4-6, 2016 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in association with the Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable, and Farm Market Expo. The Berry Conference was a combined conference of the North American Raspberry & Blackberry Association and the North American Strawberry Growers Association. These Proceedings contain materials for both caneberry and strawberry sessions.  

All files are pdf files. You will need Acrobat Reader 10 or higher to view them. Note that a few files are quite large (over 5 MB).  Get Acrobat Reader

Titles in this Table of Contents and the online files are the same, though filenames may be shortened. Grouping into the sections below is for convenience in locating topics and presentations and does not reflect the organization of the program itself. 

Please Note: These presentations remain the property of the presenters and the Proceedings are a benefit of membership in the Association or attendance at the conference.  Members/attendees are welcome to download and print the files, and may share individual files sparingly. We ask that you NOT share files widely or share the password to this section. Instead, encourage interested persons to join NARBA. A CD of these Proceedings is available free on request to NARBA members or those who attended the conference who have difficulty opening or downloading the online files. It is available for $10 (postage included) to all others.  

Conference Program (contains contact information for all speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors)

General Interest/Marketing

• Heart health, obesity, and diabetes: Berries can make a difference – Britt Burton-Freeman, Center for Nutrition Research, Institute for Food Safety and Health, Illinois Institute of Technology
• Mobile Farming with Apps– Tom Heeman, Heeman Strawberry Farm, Ontario  & Blaine Staples, The Jungle Farm, Alberta
• What Facebook Has Done for Our Farm – Leona Staples, The Jungle Farm, Alberta

Raspberry & Blackberry Production

• Exclusion Netting, Harvest Frequency, and Berry Disposal for SWD management – Rufus Isaacs, Michigan State University
• Sustainable options for disease control in caneberries – Annemiek Schilder, Michigan State University
• The Expansion of Primocane-Fruiting Blackberries — From Idea to Reality – John R. Clark, University of Arkansas
• Two crops from your raspberries — Does it make economic sense? – Eric Hanson, Michigan State University
• Trellising Summer Red Raspberries– Kevin Edberg, The Berry Patch, MN
• Sprayer Technology for Caneberries – Jason Deveau, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs
• Elderslie Farm – Organic Grower Panel – George Elder, Elderslie Farm, Valley Center, KS
• Ann’s Raspberry Farm: Creating “Art” from Seed to Jar – Daniel Trudeau, Ann’s Raspberry Farm, Fredericktown, OH
• Arkansas Blackberry Varieties – What Are People Planting and Why? –  John R. Clark, University of Arkansas
• Towards a National Certification Scheme for Rubus in the United States – Ioannis E. Tzanetakis, University of Arkansas
• Virus Diseases and Their Management – Bob Martin, USDA-ARS, Corvallis, OR
• Growing Blackberries in Colder Climates – Brett Rhoads, Rhoads Farm, Circleville, OH

Tunnel Production

• Organic Raspberries in High Tunnels – Eric Hanson, Michigan State University
• Choosing Tunnel Plastics to Meet Your Needs – Kathy Demchak, Dept. of Plant Science, Penn State University
• Approaches to Blackberry Production in High Tunnels –  Marvin Pritts, Cornell University
• Potential effects of tunnel plastics on pesticides and pest management in raspberries – Heather Leach, Michigan State University
• Low Tunnels for Plasticulture Strawberries– Kathy Demchak, Dept. of Plant Science, Penn State University
• Low Tunnels for Plasticulture Strawberries – Dale-Ila M. Riggs, The Berry Patch, Stephentown, NY
• Tunnel Production – Strawberry Tyme Farms – John Cooper, Simcoe, Ontario
• Fifteen Years of Experiences with High Tunnel Raspberry Production: What I have Learned – Shirley Kline, Happy Valley Berry Farm, NJ

Strawberry Sessions

• Biofungicides and organic options for disease control in strawberries –  Annemiek Schilder, Michigan State University
• Intro to Substrate Production–Top 10 Principles for Growing Strawberries in Substrate – Eric Boot, BVB Substrates
• The Intricacies of Silicon Fertilization – Richard Bélanger, Département de phytologie, Université Laval, Quebec
• Getting the Most out of Your Irrigation System in Strawberry – Jean Caron, Université Laval, Quebec
• Managing SWD in strawberries– Rufus Isaacs, Michigan State University and Hannah Burrack, NC State University
• Tackling Tough Weeds in Strawberry – Bernard Zandstra, Michigan State University
• Nourse Farms Wholesale Strawberry Variety Panel– Nate Nourse, Nourse Farms, MA
• Polter’s Berry Farm Strawberry Varieties – Steve Polter, Polter’s Berry Farm, Freemont, OH

Text Articles (various topics)

• Arkansas Blackberry Varieties — What Are People Planting and Why-Text– John R. Clark, University of Arkansas
• Choosing Tunnel Plastics to Meet Your Needs-Text – Kathy Demchak, Dept. of Plant Science, Penn State University
• The Intricacies of Silicon Fertilization-Text – Richard Bélanger, Département de phytologie, Université Laval, Quebec
• Strawberry Soil Health and Composts – Marvin Pritts, Cornell University
• Low Tunnels for Strawberry Production-Text – Marvin Pritts, Cornell University
• Intro to Substrate Culture: Top Ten Principles for Growing Strawberries in Substrate – Eric Boot, BVB Substrates

Poster Images

• An Integrated Badnavirus Infects Blackberry – Muhammad Shafiq Shahid, University of Arkansas; Nina Aboughanem-Sabanadzovic, and Sead Sabanadzovic, Mississippi State University; and Ioannis E. Tzanetakis, University of Arkansas
• Diurnal and seasonal activity patterns of SWD – Katharine A. Swoboda Bhattarai and Hannah J. Burrack, NC State University
• Fire Blight – An Emerging Problem for Blackberry Growers in the Mid-South– Julia Stover and B.H. Bluhm., University of Arkansas
• Improving the Black Raspberry – Some Final Outcomes – Jill Bushakra¹, Christine Bradish², Courtney Weber³, Robert Agunga⁴, Michael Dossett⁵, Mary Peterson⁶, Gina Fernandez², Jungmin Lee⁷, Chad Finn⁶, Nahla Bassil¹.   ¹USDA-ARS National Clonal Germplasm Repository, Corvallis, OR; ²Dept. of Horticultural Science, NC State University; ³Dept. of Horticulture, Cornell University; ⁴Dept. of Agricultural Communications and Leadership, Ohio State University,; ⁵B.C. Blueberry Council (in partnership with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) – Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre, Agassiz, BC; ⁶USDA-ARS Horticultural Crops Research Unit (HCRU), Corvallis, OR; ⁷USDA-ARS HCRU worksite, Parma, ID
• Observations of White Drupelets on Three Blackberry Cultivars in South Mississippi– Eric T. Stafne¹, Melinda Miller-Butler², and Barbara Smith^{3  1}Associate Extension and Research Professor, Mississippi State University, Poplarville, MS  ²Biological Science Lab Technician, USDA-ARS Thad Cochran Southern Horticultural Laboratory, Poplarville, MS   ³Research Plant Pathologist, USDA-ARS Thad Cochran Southern Horticultural Laboratory, Poplarville, MS
• Raspberry viruses — what have we learned in Michigan?  Annemiek Schilder¹, Bob Martin², Jerri Gillett¹, Roger Sysak¹, and Bob Tritten³ – ¹ Dept. Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI; ² USDA-ARS, Corvallis, OR; ³ MSU Extension Southeast Michigan, Flint, MI
• Towards a National Certification Scheme for Rubus in the United States – Rose Gergerich, University of Arkansas, Robert R. Martin, USDA-ARS, Corvallis, Oregon; and Ioannis E. Tzanetakis, University of Arkansas
• Yield improvement methods for primocane-fruiting blackberry in North Dakota – Abigail Debner and Harlene Hatterman-Valenti, North Dakota State University